Wynn Williams House

The new Wynn Williams House on Hereford Street uses a whole host of different earthquake technologies. Although some of these are not visible from the outside (like the base isolation, rocking connections and LVL beams), you can spot the metal caps of steel tendons in the facade, which run through all of the beams. These tendons are just special types of rope which are stretched through the beams and essentially work to hold the structure together during an earthquake. Another interesting point to note about this building is the fact that it uses significant amounts of wood. Although they are hidden, the beams are all made of hollow laminated timber. They connect to the concrete columns at each of the points where a steel tendon cap is visible. This gives you a good sense of the overall structure of the building.